Check this out!
HELP! Thou Vou, obvious agent 000
Thou Vou, bald agent 000, operation Disaster!
These two films were made in the sixties, right at the peak of the Bond fenomenon. They are considered two of the best films ever made in Greece. Unfortunately, as it happens with most greek films, they are not exported, so, only greeks have seen them.
What is interesting in them, is that Vengos, one of the most popular actors ever in Greece, maintains his regular persona, while, at the same time, making fun of all the Bond craziness around the world of the sixties.
The first film, Voitheia o Vengos, faneros praktor '000' (Help, Vengos is obvious agent '000') finds him as an last year student of a secret agent school. He has some basic training in theory and practice, and then, in order to graduate, he has to accomplish three tasks. For each one of them, he 'll get a grade from 0 to 9, which, eventually will make his code number. Of course, he manages to mess each one of them, thus getting his well earned 000 status. The imdb link for this film is:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0123313/
In the second one, Thou-Vou falakros praktor, epixeirisis Gis Madiam (Thou Vou, bald agent, operation Disaster- a rather free translation, I 'm afraid), he graduates at last. He, and his assistant, sub-agent MAP 31, find that noone needs their services. Until one day, the first mission is assigned to them. And then, another and another, despite the disastrous failures of the previous ones. Of course, what they don't know is that in fact, it is a cinema crew who assigns them the missions, to exploit their obvious incompetence by filming them in secret (thus, making the first 'reality' show). The film ends with the death of both agents, their ascend to heaven and their application to meet the Saint (simon templar, of course...).
The imdb link for this one, is:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0184950/
Both films are hilarious, with very fast editing and direction (by Vengos himself), and they are really very modern films, even by today's standards (especially compared to other greek films of the period). They were hugely successful when first released and people would watch them in the cinema for many times in a row, from early morning till late night.
What I particularly enjoy is that, although the are James bond spoofs, they don't actually spoof Bond himself, or the films, but the Bond mania. Therefore, you don't find most of the usual cliches that you might expect in a Bond spoof (like 'spy hard', for example).
You can actually watch the first one online, in the link below, but unfortunately it is in Greek with no subtitles. Still, if you care to have a look, you 'll get an idea of what it was all about, since, some of the gags are visual and not verbal.
http://video.google....961798355021531
Definitely, two of my all time favourite films, internationally.
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Edited by pgram, 20 February 2007 - 05:15 PM.
